The Long And Winding Road....

Well, everything is okay, or my new saying of "it's all good" is appropriate here.
While driving home last night from work, I fell asleep. I awoke when I hit an orange construction barrel driving up the mouth of the canyon.
Pretty scary, I usually pull over to take a nap, but with the snow there was no areas to pull over so I was planning on waiting until after I got through the construction area and then pulling over. I hit two of the barrels before I was able to steer the car back into my lane, meanwhile I must have scared the you know what out of the guy behind me.
My car is okay too thankfully. I don't plan to pick up anymore late night shifts, only day shifts.

Crazy Weather

I still have several feet of snow here at my house, while the snow looks so pretty, the wind however.....isn't as much fun.
Last week there were several ground blizzards that made the drive home interesting. All was good, but a bit scary that other cars may not see me, or me them.
I have wonderful neighbors, my driveway not only has been plowed, but nicely groomed to access my steps and dumpster.
With my southern exposure, my livingroom is toasty warm with the sunshine, and it enables me to enjoy looking out to the beautiful snow, while sitting in a sunny spot drinking a tasty brew.

Christmas

My daughter and I had a fabulous time Christmas eve with good friends, food and merriment, along with a white elephant gift exchange that is always a fun time.
Then this morning we enjoyed Christmas morning together. We went on a walk and it was beautiful out. It was fun getting out and seeing the neighborhood covered in snow. My son wasn't able to be here being in the military, where ever he is I hope he's safe. He is missed dearly. However, he called me and when I asked him where he was, he just told me "just don't ask", he sounded great though.
Last week Colorado had quite the blizzard. The airport was shut down for two days, and the hospital had declared a state of emergency not allowing any of us nurses to leave. I was at the hospital for three days and two nights, but it wasn't too bad, I had a clean bed, shower, toothpaste, and they washed my uniform. Plus, I got paid for every minute that I was there. I even got paid for sleeping, not too shabby since I was in major overtime. I was worried about a possible electrical outage at home, and having pipes freeze. I got home to find that everything was good, with no problems. There was easily 3 some feet of snow, and I couldn't see the railing on the deck outside while sitting at the computer. Pretty impressive amount of snow, but there were some drifts involved too. There is still a couple feet of snow here several days later, and my driveway isn't plowed out. A neighbor told me they tried, but it was too steep and the amount of snow was just too much. They told me they would try in a couple of days to plow it out again. I have the best neighbors.
As we walked up the hill to the house through the deep snow, I had crunched down a path kind of, we started singing over the mountain and through the woods to grandmothers house we go..., and changed it to mom's house. Having to hike up to the house from the road through the snow just made it more special. I just love it here. ;)
We enjoyed the hot tub after our walk and it was very relaxing. Sarah rolled in the snow:

jumping from hot tub into snow ;)'





I talked with M****, she was having a hard time, as B**'s birthday was the 24th. She told me that she went out to dinner with family to one of B**'s favorite restaurants in his honor. I thought it was great that they went there as it was keeping his memory alive. I asked her if she had watched the DVD of his birthday celebration from the year before, and she said no. I suggested that maybe it would be a good time to watch it with family. As it was such a fun time with many speaking honoring him. I do hope it helps, remembering the good times.

Never Forget

Best Of Times

I had to work Thanksgiving, so celebrated on Friday.
Since I live up in the mountains, I invited friends to stay over so as not to have to drive back down the hill to the city after eating and partying, (with those chocolate mint chip martini's that I have mentioned here before). So ended up having a wonderful breakfast deal as well.
What a fabulous time. Being together with great people, and good food is simply the best of times. It was a big group and everything came together beautifully. The preparation, delivery and clean up was simply amazing in how it happened so smoothly. Real pro's.
Thanks everyone for your friendship and caring,
I love you all.

She's a really nice girl but....

It's funny how you can say terrible things about a person, but if you preface it with;
"I really like so and so but...."
or "so and so is really nice, but..."
or "poor thing she really needed alot of help but...." (I'm guilty here heh.)
Saying that little phrase with the slam seems to make it okay somehow, or does it?
I've noticed that some folks I've been around lately have really perfected this practice.
I've started pointing this out in this group and it's begun to be a pretty funny deal. I'm kind of happy how it all shook out.

Icing On The Cake...

Most know that I've been working alot, but that it's a good thing. Today really sucked the big one. It was the last of a long string of days in a row, and one of my patients ended up having a psychotic episode which ruined my whole day. Poor thing she really needed alot of help, but meanwhile she was incoherent, yelling non stop, and incontinent hurling poop all over, throwing her food etc etc. Enough said, it was a horrible fucking day. Then after transferring her to a better place for her to get the right treatment, a lockdown facility, we learn that she had lice. They called me up to bitch that I didn't tell them she had the lice. Hell I didn't know that she had them and immediately started scratching. I stayed an extra hour after the end of my shift changing out of my clothes and showering with kwell, not wanting to contaminate my car or house. The end to a perfect day, NOT! Well now I'm home and my hair is brittle after shampooing with the kwell, wonderful stuff, but at least I'm lice free. Just one more application in a week. Sigh.

Rumsfeld

While visiting the music sites on You Tube, I came across this one of Rummy that I thought pretty funny:

Rumsfeld

Smoke On The Water, Fire In The Sky...

While driving home the other day, I had been stuck behind all kinds of traffic, with alot of construction crap going on as well, my daughter always used to tell me, it happens, "just to piss you off".
Well, just as I got into the passing lane and out from all the construction, and about to really open it up, 'Smoke On The Water' came on the radio, one of my all time favorite tunes. Because of an earlier speeding ticket that I got from having the radio so loud I didn't hear the radar detector going off, (major fuck up), I slowed down so as not to worry about missing any radar, and to really enjoy the music.
Ahhhh, back to my roots, heh.
When I got home, I listened to several renditions looped of Machine Head

Deep Purple.......Music soothes the soul.......The Idea

;)

What A Rectum!

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq" John Kerry

Scrappleface: "Let me make this crystal clear, as crystal clear as I can make it; It's not the fault of the Iraqi's that your country has become purgatory for our bad students. I hope everyone, Sunni, Shia, and freedom-fighting insurgent alike will find it in their hearts to forgive me." John Kerry

I was shocked by Kerry's comments the other day. For him to not clarify his meaning immediately, if he indeed flubbed by not telling the joke right, is one thing. But to delay apologizing or at least address his comments, spoke volumes and seemed to be out of fear of his damaging the elections, not because he wanted to apologize to the Troops.
These days, you have to be very smart, with todays military everything is computerized and very high tech.
I am very proud of my son in the military, and to slam him and others in the service, how dare you. I certainly don't want you to be my son's Commander In Chief!

Riding Shotgun

While walking out to my car tonight after a very long shift (which started the day before), I was very tired. I was walking through a construction area and not many folks were out walking. A group of 4 or 5 guys were behind me being fairly rowdy, speaking english mixed with another language, but then shouted out "I've got a shotgun", or I thought that's what I heard. A shot ran through me (figuratively speaking) and I hastened my step and walked to the other side of some pillars, when I realized he was shouting out how he wanted to RIDE shotgun. Man did I feel stupid.
Now that I'm alone, in many ways, I catch myself with frequent feelings of being scared in various situations. I'm a strong person, but sometimes I get caught up in worry.
I'm working on it. It was still good to get to my car and lock the door.
sigh.....

My Friends

My friends have overlooked my shortcomings,
and have seen me through some pretty dark days;

But they have really brightened up the rest of them.

I am so
............very glad,
............................honored,
...........................................and just damn lucky.

I love you all, you are my life blood, our closeness, caring and support of one another means so much, and is one of the things in life that makes life worth living.
Thanks

A Beautiful Wedding With Chocolate Mint Chip Martini's

My daughter and I went to a very good friend's wedding Friday night. What a fun time. Good friends together, celebrating a happy occasion. The bride was just beautiful, and the ceremony was very nice. The dancing for hours after was very fun, with good food, drinks and visiting.
Icing on the cake as they say were the chocolate mint chip martini's at the open bar ; )

Remembering Michael Monsoor

Falling on a grenade, intentionally sacrificing your own life to save that of your men, is often cited as the noblest kind of heroism in combat.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor did exactly that to save his fellow SEALs.

Because I want to honor Michael Monsoor here on my site;
Here Is a portion Eloquently Told By Froggy:

In the Presence of Greatness;

I had the distinct honor and privilege of attending the memorial service for PO2 (SEAL) Michael Monsoor yesterday at the First Presbyterian Church in San Diego. Being in the presence of so many true warriors to celebrate the heroic death of one of our own was utterly humbling and poignant. Information about Mike's death in Ramadi on 29 Sep 06 has been sketchy in the media, but the story of this man's service and his death is one that deserves not only to be told, but to be celebrated and certainly never forgotten.
First of all, Mike grew up in Garden Grove, CA (Orange County) with his parents and two brothers and one sister. His father is a Vietnam veteran and one of his brothers served in the Marine Corps. Speaker after speaker at the service took special care to recognize Mike's family and to make the connection between his character and his family's quiet service and patriotism. One of Mike's teammates said, "These are the people that I'm fighting to protect." I spent a few moments with his mother afterwards and her grace and composure under such difficult circumstances clearly demonstrated the genesis of Mike's own calmness and resolve under fire and inspired me to continue to instill these traits in my own children.
SEAL Team THREE deployed to Iraq last Spring and within a month of arriving, Mike had already distinguished himself. As one of the platoon machine gunners, Mike made quite an impression on the battlefield. On May 9, 2006 a teammate was shot in the legs, immobile, and exposed. Suppressing enemy fire with his M60, Mike fought his way to his wounded comrade's position and dragged him out of the line of fire while maintaining constant pressure on enemy insurgents with his weapon. That action earned him a Silver Star... in the first month of his first deployment.
Fast forward to the final weeks of that deployment and Mike along with two fellow SEALs were occupying an overwatch position on a rooftop in the Mulab district of Ramadi which is basically the most dangerous neighborhood of the most dangerous city in Iraq. A hidden enemy managed to toss a grenade onto the rooftop near the three SEALs, and Mike without hesitation warned his comrades verbally before placing himself in a position to block the lethal blast of the grenade from killing his teammates. One of the SEALs he saved said that Mike's countenance was completely calm and he showed no fear only resolve. No short timer's disease infecting this man, he had only a couple of weeks remaining in the deployment and he did not flinch at the moment of truth.
On the rostrum, all three SEALs whose lives Mike personally saved hobbled up together to thank Michael and his family for their very existence and to show their family's gratitude for sparing them the grief that Michael's family is now experiencing. I have never witnessed something as special and inspiring in my entire life-I have never even heard of such a thing happening before.

Sympathy cards to Michael's family are being collected by the great people at Soldier's Angels.

Family of Michael A. Monsoor
C/O Patriot Support
716 Centre of New England Blvd. #173
Coventry, RI 02816

Eyes Wide Open

This was a very powerful exhibition in our Civic Center Park here in Denver.

"Eyes Wide Open".

http://afsc.org/eyes/


No matter what side of the debate you're on, for or against the war, this was numbing. Reading the cards and letters attached, and looking at the photo's.

A very good friend of mine was one of the volunteers that worked putting out all of the boots, and it took them well over 7 hours while out in the rain.

As meaningful as seeing all of these boots were, we still need to keep focused on what's important. Not allowing these lives to be for naught.

George Harrison Spot On

Give me loveGive me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light Give me life
Keep me free from birth

Give me hope Help me cope,
with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
heart and soulOM M M M M My Lord . . .

PLEASE take hold of my hand,
that I might understand you
Won't you please
Oh won't you Give me love Give me love

Give me peace on earth Give me light
Give me life Keep me free from birth
Give me hope Help me cope,
with this heavy load
Trying to,
touch and reach you with,
heart and soulOM M M M My Lord . . .

Won't you please
Oh won't you Give me love Give me love
Give me peace on earth Give me light
Give me life Keep me free from birth

Give me hope Help me cope,
with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
heart and soul

Give me love Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light Give me life
Keep me free from birth

Give me hope Help me cope,
with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
heart and soulOM M M M M My Lord . . .

link

Emily, Rest In Peace

For the tragic senseless killing that occured last week at Platte Canyon High School. The sexual molestation or rape that happened too makes it just all the more ugly.

For this to happen at any of our schools is horrible, but to happen in this small community; it will never have the same feel as it used to have.

In past tragic stories related to school murders, it's always been students gone crazy, to know that this was a strange man that just walked into the school with guns, that he was allowed to walk through the hallways freely.

The community has been pulling together and supporting and talking with each other more, and hopefully the many counselors will be able to help the kids and families deal with this senseless killing. The last bonfire that took place at the Farmers Union Park, really had a healing feel to it. The sounds from the river and the bonfire crackling and just being together seemed to grow strength. This past week with our Aspen trees being in full color, it was as though nature had given Emily a beautiful bouquet.

Signs have been popping up everywhere on our roads as well. Emily Rest in Peace, You're in a Better Place, RIP, and the one posted above made by my very lovely friends.

Our local Pinecam:
http://www.pinecam.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=35957

News article about Emily:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9988734/detail.html?rss=den&psp=news

Worse Than Elevator Music!

OMG!

As I awoke this morning, I turned on the TV news as I often do on my day off.
Peter Frampton was playing and I turned to see a grey haired old man.
No more golden locks. Worse than elevator music!
I guess I had stopped keeping up with his music for awhile. He did still sound hot however, for some redemption here. But to be reduced to performing on Fox news, sigh. He was promoting his new album, or I guess it's called his new CD now, of Fingerprints.

Not to EVEN remenice about Humble Pie. I'll save that for another entry.

link here

Do You Feel Like We Do?
Woke up this morning
with a wine glass in my hand
Whose wine, what wine, where the hell did I dine?

Must have been a dream
I don’t believe where I’ve been
Come on - you wanna do it again?
Do you, you feel like I do?
Do you, you feel like I do?

My friend got busted
just the other day
They said don’t walk,
don’t walk, don’t walk away

He drove into a taxi
bent the boot hit the back
Had to play some music otherwise he’d crack
Do you, you feel like I do? Do you, you feel like I do?

Champagne for breakfast
and a sherman in my hand
***** top, ***** tails -
never fails

Must have been a dream
I don’t believe where I’ve been
Come on - you wanna do it again?
Do you, you feel like I do? Do you, you feel like I do?

The Best Way To Welcome The New Moon

Well my closing was today and everything went great without a hitch as they say. A wonderful friend came with me for support and really was a great help to me. Writing down closing on the calendar earlier and seeing that the new moon was also on this date made it seem so right.
I celebrated with a very nice salmon dinner grilled out on the BBQ, and some Champagne with good friends.
WOO HOO!

Late Posting

I'm still slow at figuring out how to manuever around on the computer, so sorry about this late post. I wanted to have this link be on my previous post where I talked about mom. oh well.

blogalready: Friday The 13th